The following studies are being carried out at the Somerset Foundation Trust.
PLORAS – Predicting Language Outcome and Recovery After Stroke
PLORAS is a research project looking at recovery of speech and language difficulties after stroke. The aim is to give future stroke survivors a prediction about their speech and language recovery.
If you, or someone you know is experiencing speech and language difficulties after a stroke and would like to be part of this project, please contact Research@SomersetFT.nhs.uk.
The first contact will be with a member of the research team from Somerset Foundation Trust, however more information is available on the main PLORAS website
Recruitment End Date: 20/08/2027
PRESTIGE-AF (stroke)
In this research study we are investigating the best prevention of ischaemic strokes for patients who have a common heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation (AF) and who recently had a bleed in their brain called an ‘intracerebral haemorrhage’. An ischaemic stroke is a stroke caused by a blood clot blocking a blood vessel that supplies part of the brain. Having AF makes you more likely to suffer from an ischaemic stroke as it can cause blood clots to form in the heart, which can travel up to the brain.
The standard ischaemic stroke prevention for patients with AF is to use an anticlotting drug called an “anticoagulant†to help prevent blood clots forming. However, a side effect of anticoagulants is that they can make patients more likely to bleed. It is not known whether patients who have had an intracerebral haemorrhage should take anticoagulants for ischaemic stroke prevention and that is what we are testing in this study.
Half of the participants in the trial will take an anticoagulant medication and half will not. We will be measuring how safe it is for these patients to take anticoagulant medication and how effective it is for preventing ischaemic strokes.
The study has three additional sub-studies in which participants of the main trial may choose to take part in as well.
The sub-study ‘Predictive Modelling of Risk’ will explore the usefulness of genetic factors, brain imaging and blood-based biomarkers to improve the prediction of ischaemic and bleeding events in individual patients.
The brain imaging sub-study will look at the changes in the brain occurring during a 12 months observation period after enrolment in a subset of participants.
The pharmacology sub-study will look at levels of anticoagulant medication in the blood and examine the participants´ ability and willingness to take anticoagulant medication.
Recruitment End Date: 30/11/2023
The PRESTIGE-AF Study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 754517.
